Stolen Smiles
by Mrs. HopeEstheim
Summary: RoWen! One-shot. She was always stealing his smiles, but he was fine with that.


**Ohhh yeah. Here we go with the pairing I affectionately call RoWen.**

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><p>Those seven years when everyone was gone and most of the guild was despairing and losing hope, even if they wouldn't say it around me…I hadn't realized that I wasn't just missing my 'Brother'. I hadn't ever realized that Natsu Dragneel, though he was just like a big brother to me, wasn't the only one on the island that could steal away my smile like that. He wasn't the only one whose loss made me stand on that pier, day after day, staring out at the ocean as if it had done me wrong. And standing there, watching out over the calm waves or the roiling waters, was what I did whenever I got the chance for those seven years. What did I think blaming the ocean would accomplish? Even now, I don't know the answer to that. I just know that I expected it to do <em>something<em> to bring them back. To bring _her_ back. And yet my silent, angry contemplation of the unknowing waters did nothing to bring them back to us or to ease the suffering and pain I felt in my heart.

More than Natsu…_she_ had stolen my smiles away.

Back before the whole incident with Tenrou Island, I'd tried to ignore my crush on her because she was a _girl_ and girls had cooties. Not to mention that she was older than me by several years. Whatever I told myself, it still didn't make my crush go away. If anything, I started to like her _more_. She was the closest one to my age and it was only logical that I liked her. No matter what was happening, she was nice and gentle and kind and just made me all warm and fuzzy inside, which was a girly way of explaining it but was entirely true. She was twelve back then and I was seven, so the realization that I liked her would have grossed me out if I had noticed it before she was gone.

Of course it would be Wendy Marvell that would have that effect on me. She was sweet and gentle and kind, everything I _wasn't_, since I was taking after Natsu, but I couldn't bring myself to care. When they all came back, and they hadn't changed at all so that I was then _older_ than her by about two years, I was ecstatic. Not only was my big brother back and alive and safe and only _three years older than me_, but the girl I liked was back and rather than being nineteen while I was fourteen, we were so much closer. And even if I really only showed that I was happy about seeing Natsu again, I couldn't help but think that maybe, in a few more years and if I still liked her, we might have a chance.

And so I resigned myself to waiting, because I'd already waited over seven years; what's a few more on top of those?

So I waited because I'd promised myself that I'd tell her the minute she turned sixteen–again, _if_ I still liked her. And waiting for her to turn fourteen took an agonizingly painful amount of time, but I did it. I couldn't help but notice, watching her growing up, that she just kept getting more and more beautiful. At some points in time, I felt like a total lecher when I noticed these things, even though there were only two years between us, but then I remembered that technically, she should be five years older than I am, and it stopped bothering me.

I took jobs, because we were getting some good ones in again, and I'd occasionally pick something up that she might like. A little candy here, maybe a flower there, and I'd reflect upon it as I walked back to Magnolia, wondering how in the world I'd pass it off as just an innocent little gift. It was bad enough that Natsu's new girlfriend Lucy was noticing things and teasing me about it. But somehow, I managed to get Wendy to take whatever I offered every time. I never knew whether it was just to be nice, or whether she'd realized my intentions, or even if she was completely oblivious to the effect she had on me.

And she turned fifteen.

Fifteen; so much closer to sixteen. For her fifteenth birthday, I gave her a little necklace I'd bought on my last job. It was a little silver dragon with sky blue gems for eyes, and she looked like she was going to cry for a minute, so I hated myself, but then she threw her arms around me and gave me a hug and I decided that it wasn't so bad. Maybe I could use the one year between my promised confession and then to get closer to her?

I was a coward, though. Of course.

Wendy's sixteenth birthday was a pretty big event at the guild. Everyone brought her something, because as Cana said cheerfully, "It isn't every day one of our own grows up!"

No one bothered correcting her about the 'growing up' part. As far as anyone in Fairy Tail was concerned, a person was 'grown up' when they hit fifteen or sixteen rather than the eighteen that most people said was adulthood. And really, none of the guild cared about that kind of thing. A member could grow up whenever they decided to. In the case of Natsu, no one considered him grown up until he hit about nineteen and had the courage to ask Lucy out. For me, they decided it was the day that Dad finally let me go on a mission alone when I was fifteen.

For this trademark birthday, I gave Wendy roses, half of which were a nice shade of blue–whether natural or magical, I didn't know–and the other half of which were white, and also a hairpin that matched the silver dragon necklace that she wore almost every day. The light shades just seemed to _fit_ her, because she seemed so kind and innocent to me. She seemed to like them, too, because she once again threw her arms around me and even kissed my cheek.

Before I knew it, my chance to tell her had skittered away when Cana threw an arm around her and dragged her off, tempting her with a drink and telling her that it was a special occasion and to let loose. I wanted to pull Wendy back to me, but I didn't. I let her be carted off by the woman who would be the resident drunk–that is, _if_ Cana could even _get_ drunk.

I wandered off, to the upper story of our newly rebuilt guild–it was back where it used to be, before the Tenrou Island catastrophe–and stepped outside onto the balcony that had been added. And it felt nostalgic to stand there and stare out across the waters, as if I was that lone little boy again whose smiles were washed away to who knows where. Back when everyone thought they'd never see me smile again.

"Romeo…?"

But I can smile now, just as I did in that instant on her sixteenth birthday as I turned to look at her.

"Yeah?" I had asked, trying to seem a little bored. "Didja need something, Wendy?"

The blue-haired sixteen year old looked down at her feet shyly and said, "I was just wondering where you'd gone. Is…is there something wrong with the party? I-I didn't ask for it or anything, you know–"

"It's nothing like that, silly girl," I had said, laughing and throwing my arm around her shoulder, tugging her a little closer. "I just needed some air, and a little time to think things through. You know?"

She sighed softly–relieved?

"That's good," she said, turning a brilliant smile toward me. Then she wrapped her arms around my middle, burying her face in my chest because she was too short to do like Lucy did with Natsu and bury her nose in my neck. But this was fine with me, because it was just more…more like _us_, and not like them. "I hope you're thinking happy thoughts?"

I had laughed dryly at her questioning tone and wrapped my arms around her tightly before I lifted her and spun her in a circle. She let out a little shriek but then giggled, and I smiled at her.

"I am now," I'd said. She looked up at me with those big brown eyes of hers, and she'd blushed and looked away, opening her mouth as if to say something when nothing would come out. I laughed at her, which got her attention, and I gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"Wh-what?" she'd stuttered out.

"Happy sixteenth birthday, Wendy," I smiled at her, letting go of her. It was a few long seconds before she realized that her arms were still wrapped around me, and she let go quickly, flushing again.

"Th-thank you," she muttered. She cast a quick glance at me before looking back at her hands. My smile didn't leave my face–how could she be so cute without even realizing it?

So I stopped her fidgeting by taking her two hands in mine. A clock somewhere in Magnolia struck midnight, so technically it wasn't her birthday anymore and I had really cut it close by telling her happy birthday just a few seconds earlier, but I didn't care.

"What's wrong, Wendy?" I asked, being a little cruel because I kind of understood the reason she was so nervous. If it had anything to do with the reason my heart was beating a million miles a minute, then I knew exactly what it was.

"I-it's nothing!" her voice came out as a squeak.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!" was too eager, quickly spoken. It sounded like denial.

"Okay," I shrugged as if it didn't matter, but then I decided not to wait anymore, "but there's one more thing I want to tell you, so don't get mad at me, okay?"

"Mad…?" she looked genuinely confused. "Why would I be mad…?"

I didn't answer her with any words, but she did get her answer in a more physical manner. Unbeknownst to me, it was pretty much how Natsu had confessed to Lucy. I just pulled her to me, took a breath to steady myself, and then kissed her.

Even three years later, I still remember how her breath caught when my lips captured hers, and how her slim, delicate fingers had gripped my shirt when she gave in. I remember the look in her eyes after that first kiss, the embarrassment, and even that cute blush that strayed across her cheeks. And then I smiled at her, baring my heart to Wendy for her to do whatever she chose with it. My hopes were fulfilled when she smiled tentatively back, though her cheeks had still blazed red.

To this day, as I finger the ring in my pocket, I remember every little thing I've ever loved about her. I remember the listlessness with which I lived my life in those horrible seven years without her. Those seven years when my stolen smiles rested with her on the hidden Tenrou Island, only to return when she returned with everyone else. I can smile again now, because she's here.

My smiles are all stolen by her, and I think they always will be. But that's fine with me.

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><p><strong>Romeo x Wendy. Thus, RoWen.<strong>

**Aren't they just too cute? I kind of loved this one. I just reread it before posting it. So anyway, I hope you guys like it. Because...just because. Because I do.**

**Thanks for reading :)**


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